- Slaven Bilic says West Ham United are highly unlikely to do any deadline day transfer business
- The Hammers boss did reveal that defender Reece Oxford could go out on loan to Reading
- Bilic claimed, in his Tuesday morning press conference, he is happy with his current squad
Slaven Bilic says he is happy with his squad and West Ham United are unlikely to do any further transfer business as the January window deadline approaches.
The Hammers have already added European Championship winner Jose Fonte and Scotland international Robert Snodgrass the their side this month and the boss claimed no new deals would be done before 11pm on Tuesday.
Bilic did, however, reveal the Club are set to allow Reece Oxford to join Championship promotion-chasers Reading on loan to pick up some game time ahead of next season at London Stadium.
The manager said: “That’s it, we’re done [in the window]. We are quite happy with what we’ve done so I’d like to thank the Board for the players we’ve got.
“Going out, Reece Oxford is doing a medical with Reading and will hopefully go. That’s a great loan move for him.
“He’s going to a club who are trying to get promotion and what’s really important for me is that the manager [Jaap Stam] is one of the best centre-backs to have played in the last 20 years in the world.
“It’s a move that we should all benefit from; Reece, Reading and West Ham. I’m expecting him to come back here and play for us.”
Speculation linking Brentford striker Scott Hogan to West Ham has been ongoing throughout the window, but Bilic moved to dismiss claims he was on his way to east London.
“Of course he is a good player and we watched him many, many times,” he continued. “I just feel that we have a really good set of strikers in our squad. That’s the only reason why I didn’t want that deal to happen.
“He’s definitely a good player, he’s young and scoring goals in the Championship but it’s not a question of 'Is he good enough?'; it’s a question of what we have.
“We have Andy Carroll, Michail Antonio, Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri and plus players who can play second striker like Andre Ayew and Robert Snodgrass. We have to stay fit but that’s the reason behind my decision.”
The winter transfer window has seen many big deals happen late on in the Premier League in previous years with the Hammers often being involved.
Bilic, however, stated if the Club cannot find anybody who is the right fit or will improve the squad, it would not represent sensible business.
The Croatian said: “We’re not looking for [any late deals]. We got Fonte who we really wanted, we got Snodgrass who we really wanted from day one, and we were maybe looking for a right-back. We couldn’t find someone who would improve our squad or first eleven and that’s why we didn’t get one. I’m very happy with the squad now.
“For example Demba Ba; He’s a player who has proved himself in the Premier League and he’s a player who I managed at Besiktas.
“I spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago and the problem was that he got very badly injured and he told me he would be fit in March. That’s too late for us.
“[We’ll keep the money until the summer], definitely. If we want to do something, it’s too late. There’s no reason to act like that because we have some extra money. That would be without really planning. I’m happy.”